Data freshness
What our price-check timestamps mean
A check time records when an eligible retailer offer was last successfully processed and verified by the relevant data path. It is evidence of that check, not a guarantee that the retailer's price, delivery charge or stock is unchanged now.
The 24-hour comparison rule
Current category comparison pages accept only qualifying offers checked within the last 24 hours. The offer must also be mapped to a reviewed product, in stock, have a valid positive product price, a usable retailer URL and an identified retailer. Older or incomplete offers are excluded from the current ranking until refreshed.
Not every page uses the same gate
The 24-hour rule protects the current rankings on selected comparison landing pages. Other site surfaces can show stored offers with their recorded check dates and should not be read as a claim that every offer was checked within 24 hours. Always use the visible timestamp and confirm the retailer's checkout.
How retailer updates are processed
SupplementScout uses retailer data sources that are validated and mapped to existing canonical products and variants. Some approved scopes are refreshed automatically; others use controlled imports or reviews. Source-health, identity and change guards can stop an update before data is written.
We do not claim one fixed update schedule for every retailer. The timestamp shown with an offer is the evidence to use.
What happens when data is stale
- Stale offers cannot take a place in a current comparison-page ranking.
- Missing delivery stays unknown and is never converted to free delivery.
- A comparison page can switch to noindex if fresh retailer coverage falls below its published quality gate.
- A data-loading failure closes the page's indexing gate instead of publishing a silently partial current comparison.
Price-history coverage
Price history contains valid observations stored when supported imports and refreshes run. It is not a continuous record of every retailer price. Gaps can mean that a source was not processed, an offer was outside an approved scope or no qualifying history row was written. We do not fill those gaps by estimation.
Before buying
Check the final product variant, price, delivery charge, stock and terms on the retailer's site. If SupplementScout shows an incorrect product or offer, send the page and retailer details so the mapping or source evidence can be reviewed.